Saratoga County

Town of Edinburg, NY: zoning for new construction

4 districts National Grid

The Town of Edinburg carries 4 zoning districts, each setting its own lot size, setbacks and height for what you can build. No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission. Power here is National Grid territory. The district table below has the setbacks, height limits and coverage - confirm the specifics with the building department at (518) 863-2034 before you rely on a figure.

Looking specifically at an accessory dwelling unit? See ADU rules for Edinburg →

Zoning districts

District	Min lot	Setbacks F / S / R	Max height	ADU
Lakefront Residential (the Great Sacandaga Lake perimeter, intended as a recreation-oriented residential area of single-family dwellings while protecting the lakefront environment: a 1.3-ACRE minimum lot with 100 ft of road frontage, 100 FT OF SHORELINE LOT WIDTH, 35% maximum lot coverage — the highest in the Town — a 25 ft front yard, 10 ft side and rear yards and 40 ft of height. THE SHORELINE SETBACK IS 50 FT, the shallowest in the Town, but note 5 adds that FOR PARCELS WITH LAKEFRONT THE STRUCTURE SETBACK FROM THE HUDSON RIVER BLACK RIVER REGULATING DISTRICT PROPERTY LINE SHALL BE A MINIMUM OF 10 FEET — and § 3.4(2) defines the boundary of Great Sacandaga Lake as the HRBRRD PROPERTY LINE, not the water. On a Sacandaga parcel the regulating district's line, not the shoreline, is the datum that matters. Setbacks apply to ALL structures — principal, accessory AND temporary. USES ARE NOT LISTED IN THE ORDINANCE ITSELF — APPENDIX A CARRIES 'THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE COMPATIBLE USES LISTED IN ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY ACT, SECTION 805', split into PRIMARY and SECONDARY uses per district. The Town has adopted the Agency's use classification verbatim rather than writing its own, so the use question is answered out of the APA Act and the permit question out of the Class A/Class B lists.)	1.3 ac	25 / 10 / 10 ft	40 ft	No
Low Intensity (residential development and compatible uses at a density consistent with the district's relatively high tolerance: a 3.2-ACRE minimum lot — the APA Low Intensity guideline — with 100 ft of road frontage, 125 ft of shoreline lot width, 25% coverage, 25 ft front, side AND rear setbacks (all three equal), a 75 ft shoreline setback, 40 ft of height and a 750 sq ft minimum principal building. Two parking spaces per unit. USES ARE NOT LISTED IN THE ORDINANCE ITSELF — APPENDIX A CARRIES 'THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE COMPATIBLE USES LISTED IN ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY ACT, SECTION 805', split into PRIMARY and SECONDARY uses per district. The Town has adopted the Agency's use classification verbatim rather than writing its own, so the use question is answered out of the APA Act and the permit question out of the Class A/Class B lists.)	3.2 ac	25 / 25 / 25 ft	40 ft	No
Rural Use (rural land uses compatible with the district's relatively low resource tolerance, preserving the open space basic to the Town's character, and EXPRESSLY AIMED AT PREVENTING STRIP DEVELOPMENT ALONG MAJOR TRAVEL CORRIDORS 'in order to enhance the aesthetic and economic benefits derived from a park atmosphere along these corridors': an 8.5-ACRE minimum lot — the APA Rural Use guideline — with 100 ft of road frontage, 150 ft of shoreline lot width, 25% coverage, 25 ft front, side and rear setbacks, a 75 ft shoreline setback, 40 ft of height and a 750 sq ft minimum principal building. Uses follow the Low Intensity pattern, with multiple family dwellings, commercial uses, tourist accommodations and tourist attractions as SECONDARY (Class B) uses — and § 6.9's per-unit land rule applies here too, so a multiple-family dwelling needs 8.5 ACRES PER DWELLING UNIT. USES ARE NOT LISTED IN THE ORDINANCE ITSELF — APPENDIX A CARRIES 'THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE COMPATIBLE USES LISTED IN ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY ACT, SECTION 805', split into PRIMARY and SECONDARY uses per district. The Town has adopted the Agency's use classification verbatim rather than writing its own, so the use question is answered out of the APA Act and the permit question out of the Class A/Class B lists.)	8.5 ac	25 / 25 / 25 ft	40 ft	No
Resource Management (protection of delicate physical and biological resources and economic management of forest, agricultural and recreational land: A 42.7-ACRE MINIMUM LOT — the APA Resource Management guideline and the largest single lot requirement in this entire dataset — with 100 ft of road frontage, 200 ft of shoreline lot width, A 10% MAXIMUM LOT COVERAGE, 25 ft front, side and rear setbacks, A 100 FT SHORELINE SETBACK, 40 ft of height and a 750 sq ft minimum principal building. Like Rural Use it exists partly to PREVENT STRIP DEVELOPMENT ALONG MAJOR TRAVEL CORRIDORS, and its purpose clause likewise contemplates residential development 'on substantial acreage OR IN SMALL CLUSTERS on carefully selected and well designed sites' — so the § 13.2 cluster subdivision, preserved by Schedule 1 note 1, is again the intended route rather than the exception. § 6.9's per-unit land rule makes a multiple-family dwelling here require 42.7 ACRES PER UNIT, which is a prohibition written as an arithmetic. NOTE THAT THE SETBACKS DO NOT RISE WITH THE LOT: front, side and rear stay at 25 ft in Low Intensity, Rural Use AND Resource Management alike — this Town rations by LAND AREA AND COVERAGE, not by yard depth, which is the opposite of how the Town of Day next door does it. USES ARE NOT LISTED IN THE ORDINANCE ITSELF — APPENDIX A CARRIES 'THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE COMPATIBLE USES LISTED IN ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY ACT, SECTION 805', split into PRIMARY and SECONDARY uses per district. The Town has adopted the Agency's use classification verbatim rather than writing its own, so the use question is answered out of the APA Act and the permit question out of the Class A/Class B lists.)	42.7 ac	25 / 25 / 25 ft	40 ft	No

Short-term rentals

No local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission. NO SHORT-TERM-RENTAL PROVISION EXISTS IN THE TOWN OF EDINBURG ZONING ORDINANCE. A full-text read of the 74-page ordinance returns no 'short-term rental' and no 'vacation rental'. Recorded 'unknown' rather than 'prohibited': whole-house rental of a permitted single-family dwelling is arguably the residential use itself, and absence of a found provision is NOT permission. WHAT THE ORDINANCE DOES REGULATE IS THE TOURIST ACCOMMODATION, AND § 6.8's LAND RULE IS UNUSUAL AND USEFUL: for each unit attached to another by a party wall, each accommodation unit of a tourist home, and each tourist cabin FOR RENT OR HIRE INVOLVING LESS THAN 300 SQUARE FEET of floor space, THE MINIMUM LAND AREA IS ONE-TENTH THE DISTRICT MINIMUM LOT SIZE — but for a cabin OVER 300 SQUARE FEET the minimum land area is THE FULL DISTRICT MINIMUM LOT SIZE. THE 300 SQ FT LINE IS A TEN-FOLD CLIFF: in Low Intensity a 299 sq ft cabin needs 0.32 acres and a 301 sq ft cabin needs 3.2 acres. Anyone contemplating a cabin colony should design to it deliberately. Parking is 1.5 spaces per rental unit under 300 sq ft, two per unit over 300 sq ft, one per full-time employee living off premises and one per two employees living on premises. NO PORTION OF ANY TOURIST-ACCOMMODATION STRUCTURE MAY SIT WITHIN 50 FT OF ANOTHER PARTY'S PROPERTY OR WITHIN 125 FT OF THE SHORELINE of any body of water — a 25 ft deeper shoreline setback than any district requires of a house. And WHERE A TOURIST ACCOMMODATION HAS ACCESS TO GREAT SACANDAGA LAKE it must have 100 FT OF SHORELINE FRONTAGE FOR THE FIRST TEN UNITS OR FEWER AND EIGHT FEET FOR EACH ADDITIONAL UNIT. Tourist accommodations and tourist attractions are SECONDARY uses — Class B Regional Projects the Town Planning Board decides — in Low Intensity, Rural Use and Resource Management, and are unavailable in Lakefront Residential. A CAMPGROUND is defined as an area used for TRANSIENT OCCUPANCY by camping. Separately, New York State has required every short-term-rental host to register the unit with the State through the county registry since 2025 regardless of what the municipality allows, and Saratoga County HAS adopted a county-level short-term-rental programme: a 3% occupancy tax and a MANDATORY county registry, covering any room or space in a dwelling let for under 30 consecutive days. Registration runs two years, an unregistered host faces fines of up to $500, and the booking platform is separately liable for processing an unregistered listing — so Airbnb and Vrbo will delist. The City of Saratoga Springs runs its own registry alongside it.

Good to know

UtilityNational Grid territory.
Building dept(518) 863-2034
Last reviewed2026-08-03

Working out a budget? A standard-finish build here runs $204–$268/sq ft - see the full cost to build a house in Edinburg, or what an ADU costs here.

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